A New Beginning to the Deathly Hallows
by HeraklesX
Summary: My own little alteration to the beginning of Deathly Hallows with a few spins on ideas from the canon


NH

**Friend's Footsteps**

Harry awoke in a cold sweat. It had been two and a half months since Hermione, Ron, and he had left Hogwarts. It had been two months since he buried Dumbledore, un-wanting to returning to Privet Drive and unable to return to the Burrow they were forced into camping and traveling. It had been two months since he buried Dumbledore, yet he still could not shake the nightmares from his sleep that had plagued him since that horrible night when Dumbledore had been defeated so easily. It had been two months since he left hogwarts, and still Harry could not understand how such a great wizard, the strongest, most talented wizard he had ever known, had been defeated so easily. Harry wiped the sweat from his forehead and stood up; he looked over at Ron and Hermione who were still both sleeping. They seemed so peaceful, but they would wake up and leave their pleasant dreams and have to face the world again. Harry threw on his shirt and walked outside the tent. It was a beautiful morning. The sun must have only just come up, as if the entire world seemed to look back at Harry with the same tired eyes he was examining it with. All of a sudden Harry started to break down and cry. He tried to stop so as not to wake Ron or Hermione up from the few moments of happiness they managed to have a day, but he couldn't. Harry sat on the wet grass and cried, though the strange part wasn't that he was crying, because so many times he felt like crying, but instead this time he didn't even know why, and he still couldn't stop.

**The Trouble in Nature**

The trio started walking early, not really knowing where they were going, they managed to become tired a lot quicker than if they actually had a destination. For the last two months they had tried to start the task that Dumbledore had laid before them in his will. However, they had done nothing but wander around hoping to stumble on some sort of a clue that would point them in the right direction of a Horcrux. Another two weeks went by and still there was no change in their quest; they were exactly where they had been when they left Hogwarts the day they buried Dumbledore, only now they were a little skinnier and a little dirtier. The relationship between the three friends is the only thing that seemed to have remained the same though, with many little arguments sparking up through frustration but soon extinguished.

"Ron, where are you going you bloody fool? I swear sometimes you're just trying to get yourself killed," said Harry to Ron. He and Ron always seemed to get into miniature fights over Ron's unchanged attitude towards life since Dumbledore had been murdered and the trio had been forced into hiding while they sought to complete their quest.

"I'm going to take a bloody whiz. What all of a sudden I can't pee? Relax Harry I think I'll be fine unless you wanna come with me," retorted Ron. Ron seemed to always angry back at Harry because he had changed and he just always seemed to be too serious and never enjoy himself anymore.

"No, I think I'll be fine right where I am, thanks."

"Really, sometimes you two are so disgusting, announcing that you have to pee is completely unnecessary, Ronald," said a red faced and very embarrassed Hermione.

"Well he asked, so I answered. It'd be rude if I didn't." Both Ron and Harry started to laugh, while Hermione just shrugged it off and started to read the book Dumbledore had left for her. Harry and Hermione waited in the field for about five minutes, and just when they started to wonder what was taking Ron so long to "whiz" a burst of branches and leaves exploded with the red-headed figure of Ron running from them. "Run, run. They're comin' you fools. Ru--." And before Ron could finish his sentence he was hit by a body-binding curse, which stiffened him up like a log and stopped him in his tracks. Harry and Hermione whipped out their wands, bracing themselves for the threat, bracing to see how many Death Eaters would run out of the woods and where they would come from. The next few moments shock Harry and Hermione, more than seeing Ron come running out of the woods without even having zipped his pants or tucked. Two house-elves came running out of the woods shooting spells at the two. Both Harry and Hermione were blocking and countering with their own spells while slowly advancing on the house-elves that seemed completely unscathed by the two teenage wizards. Harry hit the male house-elf with a stunning spell and was then instantly struck by a binding spell just like Ron and dropped to the ground. Both Hermione and the female house-elf stood there completely still except for the heaving of both of their chests trying to catch enough air before they were forced into battle again.

The still mobile house-elf went to make the first move when Hermione screamed at her, "Since when do house elves, work for Voldemort?" The house-elf looked puzzled for a moment but still vigilant of the young wizard that stood in front of her.

"We don't work for Voldemort," replied the house elf suspiciously.

"Then why are you attacking us?" exclaimed Hermione, now more confused than cautious.

"Why? Why? Because your little red-headed friend over there peed on our campfire and the only food we had!" The only part of Harry that could still move looked at the house-elf for a second with enough bewilderment that he didn't need to say anything, and then he exploded into laughter which was muffled by the ropes binding him.

Hermione looked from the two elves over to Ron, "Ohhhh, you idiot, Ronald what did you do? Well, we have food and we're more than willing to share with you if you are willing to stop fighting."

**The Importance of Friends**

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat on the opposite side of the table from their dinner guests. The two house-elves, still sour about the incident with their food, were slowly become less hostile with the warmth and comfort that the tent offered. Finally Ron's voice broke through the silence, "Uh yeah, um, about before, sorry about peeing on your guys' food and everything, I feel really bad about that."

The two house-elves looked at each-other for nearly a minute as if they could speak to one another just by eyesight. Finally they turned back to the three wizards. "We accept your apology; it is understandable behavior from a lower being such as yourself." Ron looked back at him not knowing whether he should be happy they weren't going to fight again, or insulted that someone just called him a "lower being."

Before Ron had time to decide Hermione took the acceptance of Ron's apology as a chance to burst with the questions she had been waiting to ask the two house-elves. "So what are your names, are you free house elves, if you're not working for Voldemort are you fighting against him, are you two married, do house elves get married?" Hermione rushed out, gasping for breath by the time she was done talking.

The two house elves didn't look at all startled by the barrage of questions they had just been hit with; instead they stayed rather calm as if thinking over which question to answer first. The male elf spoke first: "I'm Telephus, my friend here is Invidius, we are only friends, although for some reason people never do believe us. As for your next two questions, they both coincide. We are recently freed house-elves do to the murder of our master Apian. You see, our master was killed by Voldemort and we are seeking to destroy him or die trying."

Harry had been listening closely to what Telephus was saying and it reminded him of what had happened to him, and the murder of Dumbledore. "Hey Harry, that kinda sounds like what happened to us and Dumbledore, don't ya think?" blurted out Ron.

Telephus turned to Harry. "You knew Albus Dumbledore?" said Telephus, finally showing a chink in his otherwise perfectly composed armor.

"Yes, he was my teacher, so to speak."

"Our master told us stories about Dumbledore. He said he was the greatest wizard since Merlin. You see our master knew Dumbledore," exclaimed the now interested Telephus.

"Your master knew Dumbledore, so what? A lot of people knew Dumbledore."

"No you don't understand, our master knew Dumbledore personally. He used to shop with Dumbledore at the big and tall shop for wizards."

"So what, what does that have to do with anything?" exclaimed Harry, now finding that he was getting angrier as the conversation went on.

"You still don't understand, our master ordered us to help Albus Dumbledore, but seeing as he has died and you were his students, we must help you," answered Telephus, who was starting to get anxious because the three wizards sitting across from him appeared to be as dumb as he had originally thought.

**A Little Bit of Help**

Harry lay in his sleeping bag unable to sleep. Too much had happened in the day before for him to be able to. As Harry thought this he heard a loud snore come from the peacefully sleeping Ron, who was snuggling a pillow and nibbling on the tassels. Harry managed to crack a smile at the image of his friend sleeping like a child, exactly how Harry imagined he used to sleep. Harry's smiled quickly disappeared when he heard another noise came from outside of the tent. He quickly stood up and grabbed his wand from his pajama pocket. Harry started to walk towards the door only to pause for a second to think whether or not he should wake Ron and Hermione. Harry quickly decided otherwise, knowing that if he woke them they wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, or at least Hermione wouldn't be able to. Harry peered through the crack in the front opening of the tent out onto a dark field, but he could see a dim light about fifteen feet ahead of the tent. Harry readied his wand and stepped out of the tent, slowly creeping towards the light and ready to attack at the slightest sign of hostility from the light. As Harry closed in on the light a shape became more vivid. Slowly a house-elf started to take shape, and it was clear to Harry that the light he saw was coming from the tip of Telephus's finger. Harry continued to slowly and quietly walk towards him, wanting to see what the elf was doing before the elf saw him. For a second Harry couldn't quite see what the house-elf was holding, but finally the blurriness cleared from Harry's vision and he made out the shape of a book, it was Hermione's book; _Tales of Beedle the Bard_.

"So do you want to explain what you're doing with my friend's book?" Harry found himself in an offensive position, ready to attack at the slightest sign of aggression from Telephus.

"Oh hello, Sir Harry. How are you tonight?" Telephus didn't seem at all taken aback by Harry's challenging tone, or to even have noticed that Harry was gripping his wand tightly, ready to attack.

"You didn't answer my question, Telephus. I said, what are you doing with my friend's book?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm reading of course. Very interesting. Very interesting indeed." The house-elf scanned through the book, no longer bothering to look up at Harry while he talked to him.

"I can see that obviously, but why? And what is so very interesting?" Harry was finding himself getting angrier as the conversation with the house-elf went on.

Telephus finally looked up at Harry and stared at him, as if Harry's confusion was confusing him. "The stories in this book; I've heard them before."

"That's impossible though! I mean it's not impossible, but, that's just---," Hermione sat across from the two house-elves looking absolutely bewildered about what they were telling her about the stories from _Beedle The Bard_. Even Harry was bewildered at the possibility of Hermione being bewildered concerning a book, the only person that seemed to not be bewildered besides the two house-elves was Ron who was enjoying the sight of Hermione frazzled too much to bother being bewildered. "So, that's what that means? I always just assumed these to be stories and nothing more, I didn't think they could possibly be true."

"Well they are, all three hallows exist and they are most powerful, it is just that no one knows where they are."

"If no one knows where they are then how do you know they exist," smiled Ron thinking that he had just made a very good argument.

"Because people know they exist they just don't know where they are now," brushed off Invidius, who had been fairly quite all the while before. Ron's smile quickly disappeared from his face as he realized that she might be right.

"Well if they do exist how are we supposed to obtain them, now that nobody knows where they are any longer?" interjected a very anxious Hermione.

"That I do not know. All I know is that our master told us that everything you need to find these three most powerful Hallows is within these tales."

**A Fork in the Road**

Harry awoke in a cold sweat. He always seemed to wake up in a cold sweat now, only getting a few scattered hours of sleep a night. This time though he wasn't the only one awake. Hermione was at the desk hovering over the book like a bird of prey, and so close under the desk lamp it was lucky her hair didn't catch fire any moment. Harry stood up and walked over to her; wondering why she would still possibly be reading at this hour.

".Hermione," still there was no response. For a moment Harry wondered if she could be sleeping with her eyes open, but then he realized that she was still turning the pages to the book. "Hermione. HERMIONE!"

"Oh, Harry, you startled me. What are you doing up at this time?"

"Yeah, I was just about to ask you the same thing." Harry thought that Hermione looked worse than he did after the lack of sleep he had been getting. Hermione must have been staying up every night reading and re-reading _Tales of Beedle The Bard_ ever since Telephus, and Invidius had told her about the Hallows. Harry and Ron had talked to each other about it. Hermione had seemed obsessed with the book for the last week, and they never saw her without it.

"Oh me, huh, I'm just reading. I think I'm really onto something with these Hallows." Harry looked at Hermione, there was something crazy and empty in her eyes. It almost reminded Harry of Ginny's eyes when she was being controlled by Tom Riddle's diary, but that couldn't be happening to Hermione. After all, Dumbledore gave her this book.

"What? Why are you staring at me like that Harry? I'm fine if that's what you're wondering. I'm not tired, I put a spell on myself that gives me energy, I'm fine."

"You're putting spells on yourself now to stay awake? For what, to learn about these stupid Hallows? Dumbledore didn't give us a quest to find Hallows, he gave us a quest to find and destroy Horcruxes. Bloody hell, what is it with you and this book?" Hermione sat there looking up at Harry like a scared child, now breathing heavily.

"Oy, what's goin on over here? What's all the yelling about?" Harry had started to yell at Hermione without even realizing it. "So is anybody gonna tell me what the hell is goin on or am I just gonna have to guess?"

"Nothing, nothing is going on. I was just going back to sleep." Harry stared at the Hermione for a moment before turning around and walking back to his sleeping bag.

"I swear people are starting to go crazy in this bloody tent. Maybe I should have it checked for mercury or something' cause people are going bloody mad."

Harry awoke late the next morning, not having woken up again after the incident with Hermione last night. Hermione, Ron, and the two house-elves were sitting at the breakfast table eating. Harry walked over and sat next to Telephus, directly opposite of Hermione. Everybody continued to eat silently for nearly twenty minutes before Ron broke the silence.

"Well, this is awkward."

"Well now it is a little bit more awkward, wouldn't you think?" said Invidius to Ron. Ron couldn't tell whether or not the house-elf was joking but he found her strangely funny and started to burst out laughing. Harry quickly gave him a glance that immediately quieted him down.

"So is anybody goin to tell me what the bloody hell was goin' on last night, or am I just going to have to consult my crystal ball from divination class?" Harry stared at Ron for a few moments, deciding whether or not he should lean over the table and strike him or just say what was racing through his mind last night and this morning. Harry decided it would be better if he didn't strike Ron seeing as he didn't actually do anything wrong, so that left Harry with one choice.

"Dumbledore gave us very specific instructions on what to do, and in those instructions nowhere did it mention anything about Hallows."

"Well Dumbledore also gave me this book a—and that means something too!"

"Look at you, you can barely speak coherently. you are killing yourself for nothing and it's not even bloody helping us."

"Would it be any better if it was? Helping you that is?" interjected Telephus. Harry chose to ignore the comment, he was so angry he couldn't think properly.

"What I'm saying is that if you didn't come to help me like you originally said was the reason for you coming then there's no reason for you to be here." And as soon as Harry had finished speaking Hermione stood up and walked into the main part of the tent.

"Oy Hermione, where are you going?" Ron leaned to his left to see past Harry and possibly catch a fleeting glimpse of Hermione. In the main part of the tent Hermione was casting spells at a furious pace sending her belongings whirling around only to land in one of her trunks.

"Bloody hell, what have you done Harry?" Ron stood up and went into the main part of the tent after Hermione.

"I've done exactly what has needed to be done. I'm here to do something, not to track fuckin' make believe treasure down."

"It is not 'FUCKIN' make believe treasure," retorted Telephus.

"I don't really bloody care right now whether or not your little Hallows exist right now or not."

"Well they are not make believe---they are not little either, they are regular size," muttered Telephus under his breath.

**Extra Leg Space**

The recently downsized party of four were making their way towards a mountain where Harry and the two house-elves thought one of the Horcruxes might be. Harry was excited about finally making leeway in their journey, but in the back of his mind the fact that Hermione wasn't going to be there for it was nagging at him. Ron didn't seem to be the same without Hermione around. Harry and Ron were still good friends, but at times it just seemed to get awkward between the two. Harry thought it might be because at those times both were thinking about what Hermione would have said right then, or how she would have yelled at either one of them and told them not to say that, or to stop acting like children and focus on what they were doing. But Harry was focused on what he was doing now. Harry was so focused that every inch closer he took towards the mountain he could see himself destroying Voldemort.

The group walked for another a couple of hours before finally coming to the base of the mountain.

"Wow, it looked a lot closer when we started walking. I'm bloody beat," exclaimed a sweating, red faced Ron.

"Yeah, that tends to happen with large objects," Telephus smirked at Ron as he said it. Ron looked back at Telephus with a genuinely thankful expression for the elf just informing him of that information.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go get the Horcrux and destroy it." Harry was overwhelmed with excitement for finally finding a Horcrux, and finally being given the chance to really hurt Voldemort. Harry started to walk into the mouth of the cave where the horcrux was believed to be hidden.

"Wait a minute Harry; I think we should check things out first. I mean, there could be like, spiders, and stuff in there," Ron gulped when he finished talking and stared at the black entrance to the cave as he had once stared at the entrance to the forbidden forest.

"Spiders are the worst you have to worry about." Ron took his gaze off of the cave and looked at Invidius after she spoke, and then gulped again, obviously fearing every moment spent in the cave.

"We don't have time to check every little wee part of the cave we have to find and destroy the Horcrux," Harry was once again starting to lose his temper, not understanding why he seemed to be the only one taking their mission seriously. Telephus nodded his head to Invidius and they started to follow Harry into the cave, Ron reluctantly followed after a few moments.

**Destruction, Resurrection, & Redemption**

The group of four walked into the cave, it was unrelenting darkness until Harry illuminated the tip of his wand and the two house elves did the same with the tips of their fingers. The group of four must have wandered around the caves tunnel system for nearly two hours before they finally came on a pit that seemed to never stop.

"This must be it," Invidius gestured towards the pit as she spoke. "There is no other place the Horcrux could be hidden."

"So let's go, let's go down."

"How? How the bloody hell are we supposed to go down there," Ron's voice cracked as he was speaking, and it almost looked as if he might start whimpering any moment. An idea suddenly came to Harry and he waved his wand in the air to summon his broom. Harry mounted his broom and hovered over the top of the pit for a moment before he was suddenly hit from the side by something and started to spin on his broom. As Harry tried to steady himself he realized it was a spell sent from the tip of Invidius's finger. Harry was hanging from his broom sideways as he saw Invidius immobilize both Telephus and Ron in a single whip of her finger and then take aim again right at him. Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he was almost sure that this was where he was going to die. But it never came. He opened his eyes to the sound of a battle. It was Hermione. She came out of nowhere and knocked Invidius sideways. As Hermione battled with Invidius Harry managed to pull himself up onto his broom after a few tries and quickly fly to land. When he landed Hermione was whipping spells at Invidius the fastest he had ever seen any of them cast any sort of spell. Harry quickly set Ron and Telephus free and helped them to their feet.

The four managed to subdue Invidius fairly easily once it was all four of them. It turns out she was the original reason for her and Telephus's master's murder; for she had been working for Voldemort the entire time.

"So what made you come back?"

"Why would you rather that I hadn't?"

"It looks to me like she came in at the perfect time Harry," Ron looked back between Harry and Hermione as the two spoke.

"Yes, I mean no. I'm confused, I'm an idiot Hermione of course I missed you and of course I'm bloody happy and grateful that you decided to come back. Now would you please stay and help us find and destroy the Horcruxes and Voldemort. You know we can't do it without you." Hermione shook her head and they all started to walk back towards the pit to destroy the Horcrux and continue their quest to destroy Voldemort.


End file.
